I promised him, O Lord, that
I would not face weak consolation offered me within Thy holy Word. Help me, Lord, with toil and
trouble, being there to take it from the Father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments
fleeting, till I reach the promised land. Matthew chapter 6 again. Brother Todd Nyberg and I were
sitting talking to our pastor several years ago about conference
preaching, preaching and Bible conferences. And we were all
remarking how that we want to preach our best messages, you
know, Bible conference. human nature. And. Many of the messages, if not
most, are very, very similar and. Our pastor remarked to us wisely,
he said, you know, he said, I wish someone. In a Bible conference
would preach on something like prayer. And brother Todd, such a A careful
listener to his pastor and faithful. Faithfully takes heed and listens
and follows his advice. Did just that in the upcoming
conference in Fairmont, West Virginia. He preached on prayer
and preached from this text, the disciples' prayer. And it
was such a blessing. I was there. I remember it well.
Such a vital and important and profitable thing to deal with
prayer and our Lord teaches his disciples how and what to pray
now who among us does not need this. Every believer will confess
to having trouble praying don't you knowing what to pray for
or How to put things your feelings into words every believer has
trouble praying specially. Out loud. But that's all right. Because Romans eight says that.
Verse twenty six it says the spirit the Holy Spirit helps
our infirmities. Infirmity means felt weakness. We feel weak. Is this too loud? Infirmity means you feel your
insufficiency, you feel your weakness. The Spirit helps our
infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we
are. Do I pray for this? Do I pray
for that? Is it right to pray for this? Is it wrong? Anybody
here have a problem besides me? I know you do. I want the Lord's
will, and is this the Lord's will? The Spirit makes intercession
for us, he said, with groanings that cannot be uttered. I like that verse, don't you?
Romans 8, 26. If you're like me, most of the
time what comes out of your mouth is simply, Lord help Try to pray, and most of the
time you just, Lord, just help me. Have mercy on me. Thank you,
forgive me. Amen. The first thing our Lord teaches
us, as we looked at in the Bible study, is secrecy in prayer. Secrecy in prayer. He says in
verse 5 and 6, when you pray, not if, but when you pray, don't
be like the hypocrite. They love to pray, standing in
the synagogues, the corners of the street, to be seen of men. Hypocrites, that is, those who
are actors, are not praying to God to be heard by him, to thank
him, to bless his name, but rather to be seen by men, so as to appear
to be religious. He says they have their reward.
talking to his life when you pray enter your closet and when
that shut the door pray to your father in secret. And he shall
reward you he who sees in secret. Through prayers to God it's not
to be seen or heard by me it's got. To be heard by him. And he says look at verse seven
when you pray. Again, it's not if, but when.
When you pray, use not vain repetitions. Avoid repetition. He says the
heathen do that. They think that they shall be
heard for their much speaking. That is continual. If you continually,
continually pray, then God has to hear you. You keep saying
the same thing over and over again. Who are the heathen? The Eastern religions recite
mantras over and over and over and over again. They do that.
But you don't have to go into the Far East to find this. There
is a channel on television. It's completely Catholic, Catholic
religion. Anybody seen it? A couple of you have. Well, don't
turn it on. But if you do. You will see quite
often. They will have a thirty minute
program of some nun. Leading other nuns. Just a whole
room full of these nuns. In reciting that prayer that
they pray to Mary. I just happened to cross it one
day and I thought what is it? And for thirty minutes, that's
all they did. Hail Mary, Mother of God, full
of grace, pray for us sinners. Hail Mary, and they would repeat
it. Hail Mary, Mother of God. It sank over and over and over. They think that they're going
to be heard. Number one, you don't pray to Mary, period. She's
not the intercessor. There's only one intercessor
between God and man, and it's the man. Christ the only media. So we're not even heard for our
repetitious prayers by him. Many people recite this. You'll see it and you'll ballgames
or you know whatever players get together to recite that I
thought it was our. That's not going to be hard.
Reciting. As we said earlier, it's better
to have a heart without words. In a word than words without
heart. God looks on the heart. OK, here our Lord gives the manner. Of true prayer. The manner of true prayer. Look
at verse 9. He says after this manner, therefore
pray ye. Our father, which art in heaven. Our father. Our father. Now, once again,
let me remind you who he's talking to. Our father in heaven. He's talking to believers. He's
talking to disciples, lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
are led by the Spirit of God. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. To those who, he said in Romans
8, have received the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba,
Father." The spirit of adoption? You know what that means. The
disciples knew that Christ is the only begotten, well-beloved
Son of God. God has one Son that proceeds
from His bosom. One. We are not children of God
by nature, but by promise. I see. In Christ. You see, he's the only begotten
well beloved son, he's the heir of all things, and we are just
joint heirs. That we are accepted in the blood.
You know that, don't you? Every disciple does. They know
that he's the altogether lovely one that we're centered. Unlovely. But God loves us in Christ. We're accepted. It's to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. You know that, don't you, disciples?
Huh? Just the same as the disciples
of old, the apostles. We're not interested in God.
We're not seeking God. We're not calling on God. They
were a bunch of fishermen or whatever, you know, and the Lord
God in mercy and grace called them by His grace. called them
by His power, they heard the voice of the Son of God, calling
them out of darkness into His marvelous light. They said, Follow
me, and they followed Him, inexplicably drawn to the Son of God, fell
in love with Him, fell in step with Him, loved Him, followed
Him, were smitten by Him, Disciples of him, students, followers,
lovers, trusted in him, believed in him, resorted to him, called
upon him, depended upon him. He was their all. He was their
life. He was their salvation. Is that
you? Then you can say, our Father. Because Christ said, I go to
my Father and your Father. He's not everyone's father, you
know that, we know that, he's not everyone's father, but he
is truly the disciple's father. And we can say, what a blessing,
huh? Only one reason we can say that
is through Christ. But we can call him our father. Our father, which art in heaven. Now God is everywhere, isn't
he? The word omnipresent means everywhere at one time. Omnipresent. Omniscient. Knows all. Omnipotent. All power. Potent power. Omnipresent. God is omnipresent. God is everywhere. And that's
not really saying it like it is because in him we live and
move and have our being. You can't say God is over there,
God is over there. We live and move in him. He's not even a creature of space
and time at all. The heavens can't contain him. But now, our Lord tells us to
pray. Our Father, he tells us to pray
and set him on the highest pinnacle and loftiest peak, as high as
we can get him, in heaven. That's what the scripture says
so many times. God is in heaven. Thou art upon the earth. Our
Lord said, I am from above. Where's that? Heaven. You're
from beneath. You're from below. We're creatures of the earth. Earthy. He's the Lord of glory. Glorious. That's why we say our
Father which art in heaven, we ascribe to him the highest, loftiest,
most glorious place. You can't make God too high.
You can't make God too sovereign. You can't ascribe to God too
much. When you were children, how big
did you think your dad was? Now, my father is about the same
size now as he was then. Five-ten or so. Probably shrunk
a little bit with old age, but he's always been about five-ten.
Less than six feet. That's not a giant today. It's
not by any means. But I thought he was the biggest
man on earth. Toughest. Strongest, wisest,
I looked up to him, feared him. That's what he said. And our
God is above all others. Our God, Sam, Stan, Sam, both
of you. Our God is not like their God. They bring him down. You know,
he's like they are. Like they said to David, remember,
David, we have our gods. They are outside our door, you
know, waiting to get in. Where is your God? Remember that
Psalm 115? David, where is your God? David
said, Our God, that is not just mine, but the God of Israel,
is in the heavens. It is he that sitteth on the
circle of the earth. They're not, their rock's not
like our rock. Their God's not like our God.
Our God is capital G, capital O, capital D. Sit it on the circle
here. He is in heaven. Highest P. Our God is in the heaven. He
goes on to say, pray this way, our Father which art in heaven,
verse 9, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed, the word hallowed means
holy. It means reverend. If you've never seen this, I
want you to turn with me, OK? Psalm 111. Psalm 111. I'm a stickler for this. I hope
the older I get, the more I become a stickler for being true to
Scripture. My saying and doing things and
keeping at least consistent as much as possible with scripture. Look at Psalm 111, verse 9. He sent, that is, God sent redemption
unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name. So if I'm reading that right,
There is only one person who deserves this title of referent. Does that the way you read that?
Or holy? The word holy or hallowed means
consecrated, sanctified, set apart. Peter said, sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts, let him be your fear, your dread.
Sanctify, set apart. What does that mean? Above all
others, different, separate. Above all others, to be feared,
to be revered, reverence means revered, that is, be full of
awe and respect for such a one. Now, what human being deserves
that? None. Fear, reverence, honor, glorify
him. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name which is above every name. And we use that name, he tells
us to use that name sparingly, carefully, fearfully, reverentially,
not like we would use any human being's name. You know, we call
each other by first names. I would even advise young people
not to do that with adults, out of respect to them, unless they
tell you you can. But God, we're not on a first-name
basis with God. Our Father, I've never called
my Father Henry, ever, ever, ever. Mad, I call him mad out of respect. Our Father, which art in heaven
hallowed be Never use his name as we would a mere human being's
name. Hallowed be thy name. Read on.
Verse 10. He says, pray this way. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. Now, verse
33 of this same chapter gives us a little more insight into
this thing of the kingdom of God, what it means to pray for
the kingdom of God. Look at verse thirty-three. Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things shall be
added unto you. Kingdom of God. This article
was in our bulletin last week, week before, I forget when, but
the kingdom of God. Our Lord said, Pray, thy kingdom
come. The kingdom of God is the place
of his dominion, where the king has dominion, kingdom. It's where
he reigns and rules over his subjects as a king does. Well, the people of God, the
church of God is his special kingdom, spiritual kingdom. He said, My kingdom is not of
this world. This is why we know the Lord
is not going to come to Jerusalem when you return and sit on a
Jewish human throne. He's already sitting on the throne. And he has a kingdom, but it's
not of this world, all right? But the people of God, the church
of God, is his kingdom on earth. All right, his kingdom, the place
where he reigns and rule. Now, listen, listen carefully.
He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God, pray thy kingdom come,
thy will be done. As a part of God's kingdom, God's
people, we're here to do what? Well, what do all the subjects
in the kingdom do? Is the king there to serve them? Is the king, does the king exist
to make them happy? No, they are subjects of the
king. They are there to serve the king.
We are in the kingdom by the king's command. Number one, he,
thou hast given commandment to save them, scripture says. The
king, like he said of Mephibosheth, fetch that fellow, he's going
to sit at my table as one of the king's sons. He's going to
be in the kingdom. That's why we're in it. He sent
for us, fetched us, called us, brought us here, to do what? And every member of his body
served the kingdom. That's what it means when we
say, Thy kingdom come. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. We're not here to serve ourselves. And a person who thinks mostly
of his or herself is not serving the king or his dominion. The
kingdom, the king won't give peace to that person is outside
of the will of the king. The king's will is to serve the
kingdom. So I ask this, are we looking
to be happy or are we speaking the king's law? Are we speaking
our place in the world or our place in the kingdom? You seek that purge, and all
these things add up. Thy kingdom come. And to say,
Thy kingdom come, is to say, Christ, God, Father, now art
the King, and you're coming. The King is coming. The King
is coming. And we're told to pray that. Come quickly. Even so, come quickly. He said he would. He said, I'm
coming quickly. And we pray, even so, thy kingdom
come, come quickly. This earth is turning into a
hell. Come, thy kingdom come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Especially,
Lord, thy kingdom come in my life on earth in my heart now. Lord, thou art the King of kings.
I want your honor and glory. I want to be in your kingdom.
I want to be a servant. I want your will to be done,
not my will. I don't want my selfish will.
I want your will to be done. Don't let me have my will. Thy
kingdom come. I know you're coming. Come, Lord
Jesus, come. I want more than anything for
thy kingdom to come and thy will to be done. in earth
as it most certainly and surely is in heaven. That's how we're to pray. Verse
11, our Lord says we're to ask for necessities. Give us this
day our daily bread. Now, before we go on, I want
you to notice from here on out, he says, give us. He says, forgive us. Lead us. That's what it means to be a
part of the kingdom. You're praying for the rest of
his subject. Kingdom. family, a true family. That's what it means to be a
part of the body. A true family member doesn't
just think. Someone who loves the family is concerned about the family.
And so you pray us, us, us. The Lord teaches us to pray for
others, not just for ourselves. And that's what we're prone to
do, isn't it? I admit it, and I start praying, and I go, Lord,
help me. Help me, Lord, me. And I have
to catch myself and say, just forget about yourself for a few
minutes. Get out of your self-pity for
a few minutes. Quit wallering and thinking about
yourself. You do it so much of the time,
about 98% of the time, just for a few minutes. Think about somebody
else. Think on things of others. Just
for a few minutes. That's how God blesses. That's
why. That's how God blesses. Pray for others. Didn't he do
that? Didn't he lead by example? Didn't the Lord lead everything
he says for us to do? Did he not do it himself? His
prayer in John 17 was completely opposed. He doesn't
pray for himself. People call that the Lord's Prayer,
don't they? Well, no, they call this the Lord's Prayer. That
is the Lord's Prayer in John 17. This is not. This is the
disciple's prayer. John seventeen is the Lord's
prayer, but interestingly, the Lord didn't pray for himself.
He's praying for his disciples. I pray for them which thou hast
given me. Pray for the Father's glory, honor. Pray for his people. The Lord's prayer, God's glory
in his people. He says, pray, give us this day,
give us this day our daily bread. Not elaborate things, is it?
But daily bread, isn't that what the Lord taught us? Having what? Being content. Food and rain. And I'm sure, you know, we need
bread to live by, don't we? We need physical bread. We do. Brother Gabe brought up the other
day, We were working real hard and just drinking so much water,
just gallons of water. And he said, you reckon why the
Lord called this the water of life, or called himself that?
For that reason. You cannot live without water. These bodies must have water. That's why the Lord called himself
the water of life. Bread is the bread of life. It's
a staff of life. We must have it to live. OK? But man does not live by
bread alone. We're told to ask for bread.
Why are we told to ask for bread when Kroger has thousands of
loaves? I mean, that's nothing, isn't
it? Bread. We can have all the bread we
want. Because if we ask for the simplest
thing, we're acknowledging that God has it to give. That it's
not our simply for the taking. After all, where did all that
bread come from? Where did all that bread come from? Well, Kroger. No. God. It came from Kansas,
or wherever the wheat grew. Well, who grew the wheat? Well,
how did it grow? The rain fell on it. God just
dried up the rain. Ask Joseph and the Egyptians
where bread comes from. We ask that makes sense we ask
for the simplest thing. We're acknowledging God's hand
in that. That makes sense. And when we get it, we were in
everything. If the simplest don't take anything
for granted as it as if it came from man or whatever God gave. God who give us all things richly
to enjoy. He's the one. He's the source.
A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above. Here's the problem. We have so
much that we take for granted the little things. It's all the
little things that make up so much. I was working yesterday,
running up and down ladders, and I thought, man, I'm thankful
for my ankle. Rick, I had never in my life
given thanks for my right ankle. I'm not being, I'm not trying
to be uncouth or clever or whatever. You're a digestive system. Have you ever thanked God for
swallowing? Brother Todd Nyberg. Gotta have
his esophagus taken out. or your digestive system. Others have colostomies. These are things we take for
granted. Why is ours working? Why are
our bodies working? Some of you 70 years old, 60,
80 years old, still going pretty strong. Why? Thank you. Thank you for everything. Give us the daily bread. This
bread comes from you. I know it's everywhere. Pleads his hand in everything.
And we pray or whatever, and God gives it, we give him the
honor and the glory for it. And we don't just attribute it
to luck and chance and, oh, well, it just happens. We attribute
it to God. Even bread. But this bread, oh,
our Lord said, man lives not by bread alone, but by every
word that's proceeded from the mouth of God. That's this. Boy,
we sure need to pray for this, don't we? Because we're not We're
not prone to eat this. It's not our nature to eat this,
but to eat garbage. So we ask, Lord, give us bread. We're not living unless we're
eating on this bread, this staff of life. Lord, give us bread,
daily bread, the word of God that liveth and abideth forever,
the word of God, and eat it, the sustainment. Lord, give us
this day our daily bread, verse 12. Forgive us our debts. Our debts. What debts? Once again, we owe everything
to God. What do we have we have not received?
I mean, it's all on loan. Vicki, everything we have is
loaned to us, right? It's loaned to us. We don't own anything. We never
own anything. We never own anything. That's plain because we lose
it all. We can't hold it. Naked we came. Abigail has nothing. Nothing. She came here naked. Nothing.
Everything for the rest of her life will be provided to her.
Her clothing, her food, her shelter, everything. And then someday,
Lord willing, she's going to get old and lose it all, her
health and everything, and die and leave like she came. Debt? Debt? Oh, we're in debt, aren't we,
to God? That we have a debt of gratitude to God. This is the
only way we and we don't make installment pay. We can't pay.
Be like me going to my father, you know, try to attempt to pay
him back for all he's done over the years. I don't know. They're
saying now that to raise a child. I don't want to scare you here,
Wes. But they're saying now it costs
about a quarter million dollars. How much you got in the bank,
buddy? Let me go to my dad and say, I'd like to repay you, Dad,
for all you've done for me. Here's five bucks. I mean, that's just a monetary
thing, let alone all the rest. Oh, we owe our Heavenly Father. We have debts and insurmountable
debts that we owe of gratitude, service, and the only thing we
can do is just share that. It's on loan, and that's why
he tells us, give, give. What you have is not yours, it's
loaned to you. Our houses, our cars, our money, our energy,
our time. Yeah, we owe a great debt of service to this king
and his kingdom. Everything's on loan. Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do you remember the
story the Lord told about the fellow who owed, how many talents
was it, 5,000 talents? Huge sum of money he owed. And
his master frankly forgave him all of it. I mean frankly. without
strings attached unconditionally, completely 100% just forgave
it all. Not make down payment. Wiped
it clean. This is what God has done with
our sins. Wiped it clean. And that evil
felon turned right around and fell to old him five times. Or
whatever many were fifty. And he grabbed him by the throat
and said, you pay me, you owe me. And the fellow, I can't,
he said, I have patients where I'll try to get through it in
prison. And he says, the master heard
about it. Well, that's our motive, isn't
it? That's how we can easily, ought
to easily forgive. Surely, you know, We've owed
ten billion dollars, and somebody owes us ten. Surely. I'm speaking figuratively. Surely. We've sinned against God from
the day we were born. Surely. How many times they said
to our Lord, how many times shall I forgive my Brother who trespasses
against me. Who are you? Well, I'll tell
you how many times. Seventy times seven. Four hundred
and ninety times. Multiply that by another seven
thousand. Because that's what I've done
for you. And I'm going to keep on. His
mercy endures forever. And yours should too. forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. Because he went on to say, if
you forgive not men their trespasses, you won't be forgiven. If we
don't forgive others, we'll not be forgiven. That's what the
Lord said. So, he goes on. He says, pray,
verse 13, lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from the. What is the Lord doesn't lead
you know the Lord doesn't lead somebody into temptation that
is to the Lord God tempt us not when we're tempted we're tempted
of our own lust James. What he's saying here is pray
Lord don't let me go where the temptation is. that deliver me from evil and
nearly every writer says that that's the evil one the evil
one source of evil the father of lies Satan himself who has
a roaring lion scripture says. Roams the earth seeking whom
he may devour the Lord said that the Peter Peter. Satan desires
to sit. And that's not. God's disciples. All are succumbed to one temptation,
they bring great reproach on God and that he desires to shift
all his disciples, it brings reproach on him, any disciple. So he says to us, pray, Lord,
lead us not into temptation, let me not go where the temptation
is. Help us Lord let not the temp
tore. Tempt us don't leave us to ourselves
we're no match for him Lord undertake for me. As you did Moses of old
the body or. What it says in June the Lord or undertake
to rebuke the devil on my behalf. I'm not able. I'm not capable.
Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. And the power, Lord, there is
no power but from you. I have no power. You have all
power. I have no ability. I can't do
all things. I have nothing. You're everything.
I have nothing. You own all things, all mercy,
grace, and power. Thine is the power. I'm powerless. Thine is the power and the glory. It's all about your glory. I
believe you saved me for your glory, Lord, but don't let me
dishonor you. May I be for thy glory. It's
all for your glory forever. Forever. That's what I want to
do forever. Amen. Amen. seen before what I mean,
it's a good word. I love to hear it said spoken
out loud. Amen. Amen. However you want
to say. It means so many. It means that's the way it is.
That's the way I want it. I'm in absolute 100% agreement
and desire for this. This is my heart felt desire. He went on to say, because if you
forgive men their trespasses, if you forgive men, your Heavenly
Father will forgive you. But if you do not, if you forgive
not men their trespasses, and they will, we will be offended. We will be abused misused. We will be disappointed. Remember
that. You will offend you will disappoint
you will abuse and misuse some. Absolutely if you're human you
will. you'll hurt somebody. And we
need forgiveness. So the Lord said, if you don't.
That's a serious charge, if you don't. And you won't. So that's why he says, after
this man of crime. Forgive us, forgive us all, and
help us to forgive, as thou hast forgiven us. Let's sing a closing
hymn, I wouldn't dare attempt to pray after that study. All right. Hymn number 355, Let's Stand. We'll sing the first and last
verse, number 355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm, mature retreat
is found. uh... uh... you